When time passes everything changes
by reveille-moi
Summary: This story takes place five years after Edward left in New Moon - he hasn't returned. Time has changed everything and Bella needs to escape her nightmare. Please Review!


**Hey guys! This is the first fanfiction I've ever written. If you find any mistakes, they are my computer's faults. I'm innocent. ;) I'm not Stephenie Meyer and I don't own the story or anything else about Edward, Bella and co. Please review!!**

BPOV

I was searching in the huge crowd. It was obvious, that I couldn't find the one person I was looking for. Each face was forgotten as soon as I looked away. Suddenly, the panic hit me. What did this one face look like? Who was I looking for? I couldn't remember. My breathing stopped…

… and I woke up in my bed. The window across the room was still dark, showed no sign of another day. I got up very slowly and went to the small bathroom. The sudden bright flash of the light blinded my eyes. Charlie had put a note just over the light switch. He was gone fishing with Billy. I looked into the mirror and watched myself trembling. Five years had changed me completely. My skin was paler than ever, my eyes too deep in their holes with purplish shadows underneath them. The thin white line my lips were pressed into turned down on the corners. I wasn't Bella anymore. _He_ wouldn't recognize me, would have forgotten me yet, easily distracted. With sudden fierceness, the dream became vivid again and I gasped in shock.

I hadn't forgotten, I couldn't. From the depth of my mind, I pulled up the forbidden picture, just to be sure. His face appeared clearly inside my head, his brownish hair, the dim golden eyes, his perfect lips curved up in the crooked smile I loved so much. Pain stepped into my heart and I clenched myself tightly to the washbasin.

This wasn't new. Every night, it got worse. Though my nightmare changed from time to time, their meaning stayed the same and I couldn't get used to them.

_It will be as if I'd never existed_. His words echoed in my head in wild spirals that would never stop repeating.

No, I couldn't live any longer like this. Not without him, not with my heart missing. Charlie wouldn't understand, but he might get over it in a few years. Surely, it was better this way.

Next to the mirror was a small cupboard. Absentminded I took my razor from the shelf. It used all my strength to force the blade out of the plastic. I turned to look out the window, imagining _he_ would appear. Slowly, I put the sharp blade to my left wrist and pressed it into the skin. Warm blood dripped down my fingers, but the pain wasn't enough to make me stop. I couldn't live like this anymore. My left hand shook heavily as I cut my right wrist, too.

"No!", a voice I would recognize everywhere roared.

I swirled around just in time to see him burst through the glass of the bathroom's window. The room started turning, the rusty smell of the blood made my stomach uneasy, but I knew it wouldn't last any longer. Yet, my arms were ice-cold and black points showed in my peripheral vision.

"Edward", I murmured, then my legs collapsed.

EPOV

"Bella!", I called and reached her before she could touch the ground. I pressed her very tightly to my chest and sank down to my knees.

She smiled at me, lifted her bloody hands and put them gently to my cheeks. The warmth pierced through my skin.

"You're back", she whispered. There wasn't the slightest trace of agony in her voice. Though she should suffer, she seemed to be… happy.

I looked into her eyes. Something was wrong with them. For almost five years, all I could manage to think about was Bella's face. Beautiful, perfect. Now she looked sick, more like one of my kind than a human.

"Oh Bella", I choked. "I'm so sorry."

"Shh…", she hushed and stroke along my neck. "It's too late."

"No, it can't be. You'll survive!"

"You know better…"

"I love you", I whispered.

Incredulity crossed her face. Her matt eyes lost even more of their shiny depth. Suddenly, I was aware of all the warm, delicious blood everywhere. I could taste the venom on my tongue, but fought against the need to bite her, to just try to safe her.

"You don't have t-to say that…", she said softly.

"What?" As always, I didn't understand what she meant.

"That you'd love me…", her voice was even for me difficult to understand. "I'm not m-mad with you, no matter what y-you're feeling… or not."

"Bella, listen to me. I loved you since the first time I saw you, I still love you and I will. Forever", I replied.

"Then why… why did you leave me?" Her small hands slid down from me cheeks and tears started to fill her eyes.

"To save you. I love you more than my existence. You should have had a normal life, without fear, without monsters."

"You're my only life… When you were g-gone, a part of m-me died." Her breathing quickened to flat gasps.

I couldn't bear her pain, so I did something very stupid and very selfish. Grabbing Bella tightly, I pressed my lips to hers. She responded my kiss with all her remaining energy.

"Don't leave me", I whispered into her ear, inhaling her floral sent.

"To late", she murmured and kissed my again. Suddenly she pulled away, tears streaming down her face. Her whole body was shaking with the force she used to look at me."P-promise me not to g-go to the… V-volturi."

I nodded in silence while her heartbeat got weaker and weaker.

"I'll always love you", I whispered one last time.

"Love… you, too."

Slowly, her eyes went blank. I pressed her still warm cheek to my forehead. _Why?_ The question repeated itself over and over again.

Was it my fault? Could I have stopped her?

Finally, I got up, carrying Bella into her bedroom. Nothing had changed, but it looked strange without her breathing, her heartbeat. I gently put her onto the small bed, ignoring the bloody traces I left behind. There was a lighter next to some candles on the floor. Calmly, I lie down next to Bella's corpse. Hugging her closely to myself, I lit the old quilt.

While the fire started to spread, all I could see was Bella's perfectly silent face. All I smelled, was the perfume of her skin. All I heard, were the last words she'd said. When the fire reached us, I was nearly happy. I would see my love again. Soon.

The end.


End file.
